


Half Human

by SecretFangirl21



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Pregnancy, F/M, Family, Half-Human, Pregnancy, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:05:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2564261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecretFangirl21/pseuds/SecretFangirl21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Rose Tyler were not expecting a son, much less a fully-formed sixteen year-old with the mind of a newborn child. Jack Tyler is smart, but he will still need the love of his parents to survive and learn. He has a destiny that was set in motion years ago, and it is up to the three of them to find out what it is, and to save Jack's life. Rose and Ten fluff with a plot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> More to come!

Chapter 1  
Beginning after the Satan Pit  
There is no real night on the TARDIS, but the lights have to go out at some time so that whatever fragile human is on board can have a chance to recharge. The TARDIS did all it could to quiet the echoes of the Doctor’s slow, gentle footsteps down one of its dark, winding halls. It knew when he was trying to be sneaky, and it also knew he could use all the help he could get. Rose was a heavy sleeper, but the idea of waking her up like this was too embarrassing to think about.

Before he knew it he was standing outside her room, noiselessly inching the door open to gaze inside. All he could see was the foot of her bed. Her short frame did not even reach the end of the mattress and he sighed in frustration. He hesitantly opened it a bit wider, leaning his head into the room. Great job, Doctor, he thought to himself shamefully. Every girl wants to wake up to find out some old man is peaking at them in their bedroom.

This wasn’t about peaking, he reminded himself, trying to justify his actions. He just had to see her, he just had to make sure she was alright.

A wide grin broke across his face when he caught sight of her tangled mop of hair, folded peacefully over half her face. Her breathing was steady, the slow rise and fall of the blankets stilled his shaking hands. It was only for a moment that he had doubted her today, being faced with the body of Satan himself, if that was what it was. For a fleeting moment he imagined the rocket Rose was in falling into the black hole. To never see her again, to imagine her being crushed into nothing, to not be able to even say goodbye…it had snapped something inside him, something he didn’t even know he had left.

He had kept his eyes trained on her since they made it back to the TARDIS, at least as much as he could without her noticing. Every movement she’d made since he’d seen her safe had been mesmerizing. It was not as if he had not watched her before, but never to this extent. He had to see her again tonight, he had to know she was safe. Sure enough, there was Rose Tyler, the shop girl, the Bad Wolf, the only thing in the universe that managed to consistently surprise him at every turn. There she was curled up into a comfy pink bundle, clutching her blankets to herself, sleeping away like the normal, fantastic human she was.

You’ve had your look, he told himself, now close the door and go mind your own business. He bit at his lip, willing his feet to move. He was almost ready to walk out, any second now.  
“Have I slept too long again?”

He froze in place, hoping she was talking in her sleep.

Rose rolled to the side, one hand venturing out of the covers to grab her alarm clock from her end stand. She pulled the little clock into the blankets with her for a moment, then sat up suddenly, looking at in shock. “Did I sleep for thirteen hours?”

“What?” he asked.

“I went to bed at ten. The clock says eleven. Did I seriously sleep for half a day?” she hopped out of the bed and started pulling at her dresser drawers. “Sorry, you must have been so bored waiting for me.”

He shifted uncomfortably at her door. “It… no it hasn’t been that long. You’ve only been asleep an hour or so.”

She stopped searching through her tops and looked at him in confusion. “Then why did you come to wake me up?” her eyes went wide. “Is something wrong?”

“No!” he said, backing away a bit. “Sorry to wake you. I’ll just—yeah, you get some rest,” he said far too quickly as he started out the door.

“Hang on,” she called firmly.

He popped his head back in, a mask of perfect innocence “Yes?”

“What were you doing in here then? If you weren’t coming to wake me up, what did you want?”

“I…the, uh, the TARDIS kind of jerked to the side…I thought maybe you could have fallen out of bed. I just wanted to check on you to see if you—well not check on, you don’t need to be checked on, that’s the wrong…word…”

“Was there an end to that sentence?” she smiled at him.

“Well…No, I have no idea where I was going with that. Goodnight,” he waved quickly, trying to disappear again.

“Hey!” she called, going after him and catching him in the doorway. “I didn’t feel the TARDIS jerk.”

“No? Well that’s good. Maybe she shielded your room and kept it stable for you.” He patted the doorway. “That’s my girl. Always on the lookout.”

“This is new,” she said with a hint of a grin on her face.

“What’s new?”

“I’ve never seen you at a loss for words.”

He opened his mouth wide to say something, but nothing came out, so he quickly closed it. 

Her smile grew. “Why were you really in here?”

“I was just checking to make sure you were okay after…well after everything.”

“Everything meaning…?”

“Rose, you almost died today. That bothers most people.”

“Oh,” she said, the smile faltering as she turned her back to him trying to run a brush through her tangled mane. “I guess it would. Maybe I’m just getting a bit used to it.”

He chuckled once. “You do seem to get into a lot of trouble.”

“Oi! Not before you showed up. I had 19 trouble-free, boring years thank you very much.”

“It doesn’t bother you that you almost fell into a black-hole today?”

“I wasn’t the one fighting the devil.”

“I hardly fought him,” he scoffed. “I shouted at his physical form. You threw the actual mind of Satan out of a rocket. That’s a bit more impressive—” he stopped himself, suddenly realizing what he was saying.

She hopped back into bed, setting her brush aside and trying to pull it all together into a bun. “I’m glad you’re safe too, Doctor. If you don’t mind I’m going try to catch a bit more sleep.”

“Oh yes!” he said, a bit too loudly. “Lots to do tomorrow. I’m thinking about swinging by the Olympics! 2012, or 2016, I’m not sure which yet. Both were really, very excellent, wait until you see England’s opening ceremony—wow, absolutely amazing. I was about to pop in once before but I landed too close to the speakers, I swear the whole audience heard me. They were nice enough not to complain but—”

“Oh, good. You’re back to normal.” Rose smiled as she settled back into the covers.

He blushed. “Sorry, right, humans and their sleep. I’ll just—”

“Doctor?”

“Hmmm?”

“Would you… stay with me for a while?”

“What? Why?” he asked, hoping she couldn’t hear the way his hearts had simultaneously skipped a beat.”

She scooted to one side of the bed. “It was tough for me today too, you know. You said you’d come back if I let you go down there, and then I thought you were trapped down there. They were going to leave you, you know. Both of you. They said there was no other way.”

“I’m sorry,” he said automatically. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“We’re okay. Will you stay in here for a while? I just want to be able to know you’re safe. Does that make any sense?”

He grinned. “Yeah. No problem, Rose,” he said, sinking into the old rocking chair next to her bed.

“Um,” she stuttered a bit, scooting to the far side of the bed, “I mean, stay here. With me.”

“Oh,” he said, trying to read her expression. Don’t, that nagging voice in his head warned him. He leaned over and laid on top of the covers, laying his hands over his chest innocently where the intense double-rhythm in his chest was beating out a samba. What are you doing? You are nine hundred years old. Imagine how this would look if someone saw you two like this!

Rose chuckled a bit at the lost expression on his face, then scooted a bit closer and took one of his hands in hers. “Goodnight, Doctor.”

“Goodnight, Rose,” he said softly.

She leaned over swiftly and gave him a chaste peck on the lips, then laid back against the pillows and closed her eyes. He sat up, staring at her for several minutes. She was pretending to be asleep, but he knew better. She was controlling her breathing so that it looked even, but it was a façade. His eyes flitted down to her hand, folded delicately around his. This wasn’t new, they held hands all the time. Closeness wasn’t new. Something about this though, was entirely uncharted territory. The little voice whispered sharply in his head. Don’t you dare! You get out of this bed and get back to the console room. If you do this you could ruin everything! This is Rose Tyler, your best friend, your companion.

He nodded to himself, gently sitting up and trying to force himself to leave her. Her hand was still on his and when he looked back to her she was staring up at him, two pairs of brown eyes meeting wordlessly. She always managed this—somehow she spoke to him with no words. Without a face once in the fifties, she’d still had this spark in her, this indescribable that brought something entirely new to the equation. He gasped when he felt something new, a voice he had heard before, whispering in the back of his mind, but had always ignored. 

This is Rose Tyler. You’re best friend. What if it doesn’t end badly? What if you tell her everything, and she feels the same way. It will end eventually, she will die before you, but why not grasp at every second?

Without another word he leaned over and kissed her, grasping at her like the last life preserver on the boat. She grabbed him back tightly; if he had been human it would have hurt. He broke away from her, reminding himself that humans didn’t have a respiratory bypass system.

“I love you,” he babbled incoherently against the skin of her neck as she clung to him. “Rose, never scare me like that. Never ever let me think you’re dead again.”

“I promise,” she said, leaning back to see his face.

Time crept on in the way it does aboard the TARDIS, but neither would notice that night.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Far away, unknown to the Doctor or his companion, a Professor Carlton Edwards at the University of Colorado was locking his office door. Only minutes before he had received a letter, a terrible letter, from an old friend. The problem was, that friend was dead.

It had been a terrible blow, a few weeks before, to hear that his old colleague Miles Frobisher had disappeared. It was much worse a few days later when he heard the man’s body had turned up not one mile from his own home. Miles had lived in Cardiff, and for him to turn up in Colorado—so close to Edward’s home—it meant something.

Then, today, a letter had arrived from Cardiff. It was from Miles, but dated several months before the man had died. It simply read:

We are in trouble, my friend. If this letter has been sent to you by my attorney, it means I was not able to get to you in person to warn you about our imminent danger. You, Professor Edwards, are one of the smartest individuals I’ve ever met, and I’m proud to call you my equal. However, it seems the thing that has brought us together will be our downfall. Hide yourself— tell no one where you’re going, just get out of the University as soon as possible and run.  
Goodbye,  
Miles Frobisher

The letter was helpful, or it would have been, but it was too late. Carlton Edwards locked his door, then turned around to face his empty office. Then he screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The TARDIS decided when they woke up that morning, filling the room slowly with a soft, artificial light. The first thing Rose felt was the Doctor's lips leaning against her forehead, his steady breath giving him away. She almost never saw the Doctor sleep. He only needed about eight hours in a week, and he tended to get them out of the way when she was asleep anyway. She heard him mutter something quietly against her hair.

"Are you awake?" She whispered as softly as possible.

He said nothing for a long minute. She turned to face him but his eyes were still shut peacefully. "The… the bag in my right pocket," he mumbled.

"You, uh… you're not wearing pants," she whispered back.

"The…the bag. Do you like jelly babies?" he murmured.

She giggled a bit and he woke with a shock. For a split second he looked at her with a quizzical scrunching of his eyebrows, then they relaxed and his entire face split into a wild grin. "Morning."

"Morning," she said back. Pushing a bit of his hair away from his face.

They laid there quietly, both entirely awake but unwilling to break out of their warm comforter. Rose felt the air around them chilling and the tip of her nose was numb. She pressed her face against his shoulder. "Is it cold? Really cold?"

"Stop it you," the Doctor called out into the room.

Rose felt the temperature rise slowly and stuck her hand out to test the air. "It's normal again. What was that about?"

"It was her," he said, tapping lightly on the TARDIS wall. "She doesn't want us to get out of bed."

"Why?"

He smirked. "She's been rooting for us to…have a morning like this."

"Your box is shipping us? It's a shipping ship?"

He chuckled. "She likes getting her way."

Her eyes dropped for a second. "Has she?"

"Has she what?"

"Gotten her way?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Have you spent nights in bed with people you don't intend to be involved with?"

"Have you?"

"Yes…Well, not for a long time. Ninety year olds, you know. Everyone makes mistakes when they're young."

She ran her fingers along his, not looking him in the eye.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Was this a mistake? Is everything going to change?"

"It doesn't have to. Honestly, except for this part…what don't we do that regular couples would? We live together, we spend all our time together, we have dinner and breakfast and chips."

"There is no regular in this situation," she said. "So… what do we do now?"

He grinned madly, slipping the covers off and jumping up excitedly. "Same thing we've always done! Olympics, yeah?"

"You might want to put on pants."

"Oh!" he said suddenly, grabbing a pillow to cover himself. "Yeah, clothes would be good," he agreed with a wag of his finger as he headed off to his room.

She laughed at him, hopping out of the bed—then she immediately fell to the ground. She sighed, putting her hand against her head as she stood slowly, the room spinning a bit. "Stood up too fast," she muttered to herself. She went on shaky legs to the bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror.

She winced. Her makeup was smudged beyond belief; she should have remembered to take it off the night before, but she'd been a bit busy. She smiled at the thought, glancing back into her bedroom as certain moments flashed through her memory. This was actually real. She'd pinched herself a dozen times this morning, checking to see if she was stuck in some wonderful dream where everything was right with the universe.

Rose gave up on adjusting her appearance and decided to go ahead with a shower. Her hair was full of shampoo when she heard the Doctor knocking at the door.

"Rose?" He called. "What's taking so long? We'll miss the opening ceremony if you take all day in there!"

"It's a time machine," she called back, "we're not going to miss anything."

"It's an expression."

"'We'll miss the opening ceremony' is not an expression."

"Come on," he whined.

"Two minutes," she assured him as she slipped into a towel.

She heard him grumble as he stalked back to the consul room. She rummaged around in the medicine cabinet in front of her, she usually kept all her perfume on one shelf, and she was sure the one she wanted was here somewhere…

"There you are," she whispered excitedly, pulling the little yellow bottle out of the cabinet. She'd picked it up in a little shop on Woman Wept, (her Doctor was always pulling her into little shops) but she hadn't dared to use it. Banana-scented perfume; perfect, but obvious. The Doctor loved bananas, and he would know immediately that she bought it with him in mind. Now that they'd crossed that barrier, who cares if he knew. Anyway, it wasn't only for him. It had smelled delicious in the store.

She pulled the bottle open and took a deep whiff—then gasped and coughed, clapping a hand over her mouth. Her vision swam; the stink from the bottle was intense. A shiver ran through her and before she knew it she was on the floor in front of the toilet, getting violently sick. A sharp pain hit her midsection and she cried out, squeezing her nails tightly into her palm. Her other hand grabbed at her stomach, wondering what on Earth she could have ate that would hurt so much. Something budged against her hand.

She gasped, pulling her hand away as she heard the Doctor coming back. "It's been two minutes, Rose," he called cheerfully. "Come on out… I'll come in after you," he warned playfully.

She opened her mouth to answer, but she was having trouble breathing. What was happening? Had she been poisoned? Not now, not just as everything she'd dreamed of was coming true, not with the Doctor outside the door, ready to whisk her away with him all over time and space.

Figures. I find heaven then I die. She thought as her vision grew white. For just a second, she could have sworn she heard something, far, far away, but so close.

"Rose?" The Doctor called, knocking on the door. "Rose, are you okay? Rose, answer me."

She wanted to, really, but the room wouldn't stop turning around her. There was that noise again. What was it? It was so familiar…

Beat-beat. Beat-beat.

She slapped her hand against the tile floor, hoping her could hear it.

"Rose, I'm coming in!" he shouted. She hear him banging his fists against the locked door. "Let me in!" he yelled to the TARDIS. "You have to let me in right now! Don't make me break it! Rose, I'm coming!"

She didn't notice falling over, but she suddenly felt the cold tiles against her cheek. The beating sound got louder, engulfing her mind as she lost consciousness.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
Rose didn't know where she was. She was sitting somewhere outside, but the grass was...wrong. The blades were tinted red, and when she pressed down on it with her hand it was crisper than grass should be. She looked out into the burnt-orange horizon and saw something big in front of her, just beyond a wide mountain. There was a globe, a big, glass globe. It shone in the sun, glittering so bright she had to shield her eyes. As she focused on it she realized there was something inside it, like it was one big snow globe in the middle of a red summer meadow. A figure appeared on the hill—

There was a pounding in her head as she blinked awake, grunting softly.

"Rose?" she heard the Doctor ask. She felt his hand grasp hers. "Are you awake?"

She was in a soft cotton bed, but it wasn't her own. She glanced around the sterile-white walls around them, occasionally peppered with a kitschy painting. "Are we on the TARDIS?"

"No. Hospital room. A real, proper hospital, if you can believe that. I took you to the med-bay onboard at first, but the sonic gave no readings at all. According to this, you're perfectly healthy." He pulled the offending instrument from his pocket and seemed to get some kind of information from the side of it. Rose rolled her eyes; she was never sure what he could be reading, it didn't even have a screen. She was fairly certain it was just a dramatic effect for his companions.

"What planet? I'm not being treated by cats in nurse uniforms, am I?" she asked with a weak smile.

He smiled back, but it didn't reach his worried eyes. "No cats, promise. We're on Earth, actually. Well, about ten thousand years in your future, I figured there was no use in letting a bunch of 21st century quacks have a go. Still, if you're treating a Raxacoricofalapitourian, you go to Raxacoricofalapitourious. I figured, to treat a human, no better place than Earth."

"What happened?"

"What do you remember?"

"I remember you trying to break down my bathroom door. Oh, you didn't did you? I mean thanks for saving me, but I really liked that door, I'm pretty sure it was solid mahogany."

"You passed out Rose, in the bathroom."

"I know. Why did I do that?"

He leaned into her face conspiratorially. "They won't tell me, they said you're results aren't back yet, but I think I know what they're hiding."

"They're hiding something?"

"If your blood came back with poison in it, they'd never tell me, I'd be the first suspect, so I think they know exactly what's wrong, but don't trust me enough to share it until you make a full recovery."

"Why do you think I was poisoned?"

"Don't panic," he whispered, but I found something strange on the bathroom floor." He pulled the little yellow bottle from his jacket and pointed it at her, gazing intently at into her eyes. "I don't know how someone would have smuggled this bottle on the TARDIS, but I swear Rose, I will find out exactly what's in it and reverse any negative effects it may have had on you."

"Doctor, that's my perfume."

"…What?"

"I bought perfume, on Woman Wept. It's banana-scented."

He squinted at the bottle and cautiously held it to his nose, taking a careful whiff. The smile that split across his face was genuine this time. "Oh! Lovely! Where did you manage to find this?"

"Little shop."

"I love a little shop. Well, anyway, there goes my poison theory. I suppose that's a bit of a relief… but it just means we're back to square one."

"Hang on, what did you mean?"

"What? When?"

"You said if I was poisoned, you would be the number one suspect. Why would they suspect you?"

"Oh," he said, scratching absently at the back of his head, "it's nothing really, but a bit of a cover story."

"What's the cover?"

"Well, I tried telling the rude woman the front desk that you were my friend, but then she told me I couldn't come into the room with you. Can you imagine? I had the psychic paper with me though, so it was easy to convince her I had misspoken and we were…uh… you know."

"We were what?"

"Ah!" a balding man said from the doorway, holding a clipboard. He was a short man, in what Rose presumed was an appropriate doctor's attire for the time period, though to her he looked more like a mime. "Mr. and Mrs. Tyler. Feeling better now, young lady?"

Rose shot the Doctor an amused look. "Yes, Sir. The Doc…My husband was just telling me that you don't know why I passed out."

"That's why I'm here," he said calmly, striding in to stand next to her bed. "No reason to be alarmed, that's the first thing, I always tell my patients not be alarmed. Unless they should be. There are appropriate times to be alarmed, I suppose. An ulcer is a reason to be alarmed, I suppose, but, imagine if you had cancer, and then I told you there was an ulcer to go along with it. Sure, I bet it's a bit distressing, but not nearly as much as the other thing you would have on your mind of course—"

"Do you mind?" The Doctor asked, cutting him off. "Is Rose alright or not?"

"Oh! Oh yes, yes, the results," he stammered a bit. "Well, the good news is that you should be fine, My Dear. The bad news is that you wouldn't have to be here at all if you were following proper precautions. Been skipping out on your pills, have we?"

"I don't take pills. What kind of precautions?"

"Well, what vitamins are you taking?"

"I take an Echinacea sometimes...If I'm feeling sick. I didn't have time to take one in the bathroom, if that's what you're suggesting. It all happened too fast."

"No, no, I mean your prenatal vitamins."

She stared at him. "Prenatal? As in for pregnant women? Why would I be taking those?"

The old man sighed, rolling his eyes. "Great, your one of those women. Listen, I don't know what garbage your last doctor filled your head with, but prenatal vitamins really are essential. You passed out because your body is working in overtime to compensate for the extra life. You would think a woman as far along as you are would have thought this through a little better," he scolded gently.

"I'm not…" she started, waiting for him to realize that she wasn't 'along' by any means. She wasn't pregnant, obviously.

Rose glanced at the Doctor, but he wasn't looking at her eyes. He was staring at her stomach. She glanced there too, her breath catching in her throat. It was hard to see if you didn't know her body as well as she did, but it was clearly there. The bottom of her stomach was extended by a few inches. Unless she had managed to put on five pounds since she left the bathroom, the insanity the man next to her was spouting was beginning to sound plausible.

"I'll tell you what," the man started again, "I'll get you some vitamins, free of charge, just promise you'll try them."

"I…Okay." She said, eyes not straying from her midsection.

"Oh, before I forget," he stopped on his way out the door. He pointed at the Doctor, drawing his attention momentarily away from Rose. "I better get your information too."

"My information." The Time Lord stated blankly. It was hardly a question, and he turned his eyes back to Rose as the man continued to talk.

"Well, I did assume you're the father of your wife's baby, yes? You look human enough, but these intense vitamin deficiencies are more common when the parents are from two separate planets. You see, an Earthling's body, for instance, will naturally make the nutrients its offspring needs to survive. But if the father is from another, similar humanoid species, then the woman's body can't make the nutrients his baby would need, can it? Stowans, for instance, actually make a low level amount of cyanide in their neurochemicals, can you believe it? So if a Stowan gets an Earth girl pregnant, we have to find a way to provide the half-Stowan baby with cyanide without killing the mother. Where are you from?"

The Doctor stared at them both for a moment, and Rose wondered if she was the only one who could see the intense fear behind his eyes. "Stow. Yeah, I'm from Stow. Those vitamins would be a good idea."

"Excellent," the man smiled as he left. The second he was out of earshot the Doctor jumped forward, pulling out his sonic and scanning over her abdomen.

"Doctor?" she started to ask him a question but he cut her off. Suddenly he was inches from her face, whispering very quietly.

"Listen to me, I promise I won't be angry. We were not together, officially, until last night. Except for me, who was the last person you…danced with?"

She raised her eyebrows at him, a slow blush creeping over her face. "There was one boy, Jimmy Stone. I had to leave school because of him, total jerk. Because of it I was too paranoid with Mickey, I was afraid it would all end the same way."

"When was that? Jimmy Stone I mean, when were you with him?"

"Three years ago. He was the only one, except for you."

The Doctor rubbed his hand against the side of his face, his eyes gathering that special kind of crazy he usually reserved for life or death situations. "Impossible," he whispered.

"They're wrong, right?" Rose asked him. "I can't be pregnant. If I was, we wouldn't be able to tell, it was less than a day ago. They seemed to think I was months along already."

"Stay here," the Doctor said simply, jumping up and heading quickly out the door and shutting it behind him.

Rose stared after him, wondering if he was about to catch the doctor and explain that this was all some big mistake. Instead she heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS'S screeching engine, and the blue box itself appeared next to her bed.

The Doctor popped out of the door, but before she could ask him what he was doing he scooped her up, gently untangling her from the machines next to her bed, and carried her away into the TARDIS.

"Oi! I can walk," she protested as he set her down on the seats and started grabbing seemingly random controls. She watched the time rotators whirr for a minute, the Doctor wasn't looking at her. "Doctor? This isn't possible, is it? You said you scanned me in the bathroom. You would have noticed if I was pregnant."

"I scanned you right away, yes, and nothing came up."

"Well then—"

"Then I scanned you again, just now in the hospital," he cut her off. "It confirms everything they said. You were perfectly normal a few hours ago, now it says you're expecting."

She stared at him. "I'm actually pregnant? That's not possible."

"I know," he said as the TARDIS stilled. He ran over and felt at her pulse, then dropped to his knees and started to sonic over her abdomen. His hands were shaking.

"Why couldn't I stay in the hospital?" she asked.

"They couldn't help you. Not worth staying when I could be keeping a much closer eye on the situation."

Rose stared down at the small bump, a ghost of a smile on her lips. She hadn't thought that she and the Doctor could have a family, because of the life they lived, but here was the proof. The movement she'd felt, the heart beat she'd heard, they were all from a baby. Her baby. The Doctor's baby. It happened quite suddenly, whether it was how she would have always reacted or a byproduct of the unusual pregnancy she would never know, but Rose Tyler knew in that moment that she was a mother. And her child might be in danger. Her eyes widened, remembering what the doctor in the hospital had told her. "What about the vitamin thing? He said if two members of a different species had a child, the mother would need supplements. You're a Time Lord, I'm a human—"

"That's the problem. They wouldn't know how to help with this situation. It's impossible. There has never been a cross between a human and a Time Lord before, never once in all of time and space. They would give you drugs for some other child, and it would kill you." The Doctor sighed, pressing a hand against the bump sadly. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, not looking at her anymore. He was speaking directly to her child. "I'm so, so sorry that I forced you into existence, you did nothing wrong. I don't know how far developed you are, but if you can understand me, it will all be over soon."

He hopped up and ran down a corridor, and Rose frowned after him. What did he mean, it would all be over? Was the pregnancy so fast that her baby would be born shortly? He came back with a needle.

Rose stood quickly backing away from him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Rose," he said sadly, "I wouldn't do anything without your permission, you know that, but you have to listen to me. A human body cannot support a Time Lord. This is an extract from a plant on Gallifrey, I kept samples onboard before the Time War. It's deadly, but only to natives. You wouldn't feel a thing, but whatever this life form has poisoned your body with, it will neutralize it. A few hours ago there was no sign of it, now it shows up on tests, another hour or two he could be born for all we know. There's not much time to think about this."

"If I neutralize the poison, what happens to my baby?"

He sighed, not looking her in the face. "Rose, I'm sorry, this is not a possibility for us. There's never been a study, we had to reason to conduct one. Most Time Lords preferred to avoid humans altogether, let alone have a child with one. This could kill you."

She was silent for a minute. "Could kill me? As in, you don't know for sure?"

"I promised to keep you safe, Rose. I promised, and this is my fault. Please don't gamble with this. Your life means so much, to me, to your mum—"

"And this life doesn't?" she asked, placing a hand protectively over the baby. "What makes one life less important than another? You, who abhors violence and breaks guns, you just want to kill a child—your child? Would you kill your own child?"

He winced, and she could see that she had hit some nerve inside him that she didn't recognize. "If I absolutely have to, to do the right thing, then I will. I've done it before."

"No," she said simply. "You already said it was my decision."

"What do you think this would accomplish, Rose? We can't even be sure it would be born alive. You could be killing yourself for nothing."

"We both live, or neither of us do," she said finally. "What would you do, Doctor? If you were me, could you honestly let one life be extinguished to save your own?"

He sighed, leaning back against the console. "No. I never would."

"It's decided then. If this baby has a chance, we give it everything we can to increase those chances. We'll watch this closely. I'll take whatever vitamins you think would help him. If the moment comes, and we have to decide between me or him…can I trust you to pick him?"

He stared at her for a long moment. "Yes."

"Okay," she nodded, smiling a little again. She walked forward and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back, less enthusiastic, but she understood. He was afraid, so afraid that giving in to the relationship they'd been ignoring for so long had come with a deadly consequence. "It's going to be okay," she whispered. "I'll be fine."

"I love you," he murmured into her hair.

"I love you, too," she said kissing his collarbone. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Let's say this all works out. Let's say I live, and the baby lives. Let's say he's normal, and happy, and a brand new form of life the universe has never seen. Would you be happy?"

She felt his smile against her neck. "Oh, yes."

They stayed there together, ignoring the passage of time, holding tightly to the other one until their fears seemed less daunting.

"Well," he said finally, "no Olympics then."

"Why?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, some of the terror she'd seen melting form his face. "Are you kidding? We have no idea when this baby will decide to be born. You don't want to go into labor in the middle of the shot-put throw. No getting into trouble, not until we've worked this out."

"We never try to get into trouble."

"No, but we always manage to don't we? No wandering, no traveling, this was your choice," he said with a wag of his finger.

"Fine. I don't want to be holed up in here though, not if we don't know how long it could take."

He clapped his hands and spun around, adjusting a few levers behind him. "Sounds good to me. How about a trip home, Rose Tyler?"


	4. Chapter 4

“It’s not bad for him is it?” Rose asked him as they walked through the estate to her flat. “Traveling in the TARDIS, should there be a big ‘no babies on board’ sign?”

“Nah,” he assured her, swinging her hand in his. “Maybe for another pregnancy, but not this one. If anything the time vortex should work as a type of vitamin. Time Lords were exposed to the radiation of the Untempered Schism for their entire gestation.”

“This isn’t just a Time Lord though, he’s part human,” she argued.

“Doesn’t hurt humans either. There’s not a lot we can know about this, Rose. We kind of have to play it by ear. Nothing’s going to work the way you think it should for a human.”

“How far along am I, then?” 

He laughed, shaking his head. “I’ve just told you, it doesn’t work like that. Time is not the boss of your baby. You passed out in the bathroom because of a vitamin deficiency that shouldn’t have appeared until months after conception. Then I scanned you and you didn’t read as pregnant at all, then the hospital scanned you and you came back as six months along, based on how they reacted. Now you’re barely registering two months. It’s hopping all around the developmental scale. You might even out, or you might just continue on like this for nine months. Maybe he’ll just get bored and decide to be born before tea time.”

“Mum?” Rose called as she opened the door to the flat.

There was a clattering from the kitchen, then Jackie Tyler popped her head around the corner. “Rose!” she exclaimed, running forward grabbing her daughter into a tight hug.

“Hi! Sorry we’ve been so long… actually, have we been gone long?”

“Three months on my end, I don’t know about yours. Come here you,” she ordered the Doctor, hugging him against his will.

“Hey, hey, let me go,” he whined a bit, wiggling away.

“‘Bout time you brought her home,” she scolded, whacking him gently on the arm before she took Rose’s hand and led her into the kitchen. “How are you getting on with it, Rose?”

Rose paled. “Getting on with what?”

“Did you already forget?” she asked skeptically. “Last time I saw you, you were crying about seeing me die in that parallel world. You just got over it?”

“Right, sorry. I’ve just had a lot on my mind,” her eyes shifted to the Doctor automatically, but she hoped her mother hadn’t noticed.

Jackie Tyler was not one to miss a scandal. She looked back and forth between them, then sighed and sank into a chair at the table. “Okay, let’s hear it. Finally decided to tell me about you two?”

“Mum!” Rose said, blushing a bit.

“Come off it. I knew this was going on, you know. From the first minute you walked through the door with that one, back when he had the other face. ‘Companion’ my right—”

“We weren’t together then, Mum!” She insisted, shifting awkwardly.

“But you are now?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said quickly while Rose stuttered a bit. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Jackie stood up to her full intimidating five-foot height. She stood toe to toe with the Doctor, staring him right in the eye. For just a moment, The Oncoming Storm, The Destroyer of Worlds, The Mighty Doctor of Gallifrey, was absolutely terrified of this small Earth woman.

She pressed one finger over his right heart. “You plan on staying with my daughter?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“You don’t work. How will you get money to support her?”

“I still work for UNIT, technically. I accrued quite a bit of uncashed paychecks, I just didn’t have any reason to use them before.”

“Do you love her?” she asked, backing away just an inch.

The Doctor smiled. “Oh, yes. Always. As long as she’ll have me.”

Jackie sized him up a moment. “I’m watching you, Spaceman.”

“Noted,” he said nervously. “See, Rose? That wasn’t so bad,” he said turning to look at her.

She was ignoring them completely, her eyes fixed maliciously at the refrigerator. Her knuckles were white against the table, her fingers tightly gripping the side of it. Her tongue came out, gently wetting her bottom lip.

“Rose? Are you alright?” he asked.

She was up in a flash, making a mad dash for the fridge. She tore the door open, searching desperately through the messy shelves. “I’m so hungry!” she hollered, ripping open some tin-foiled monstrosity and shoving it into her mouth.

“Rose!” her mother scolded her. “What’s gotten into you?”

Rose muttered something unintelligible through the pile of cold meat, pulling out a bottle of mustard and squirting it in her mouth for dressing.

Jackie glared at the Doctor with menacing eyes. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Um, long story really. Well, not a long story, maybe a bit complicated.” She raised her fist warningly. “Okay! She’s kind of pregnant. I’m sorry, we were going to tell you, we just had to get the whole dating thing out of the way first.”

She looked back and forth between the two of them, a light slowly coming over her hard expression. “I’m a grandma? I’m a grandma and you didn’t tell me?”

“We just found out.”

“Oh, the hell you did. Look at her; cravings gone mad over there, that’s what that is. She must be at least five months in.”

“She could be, right now, but she won’t be in an hour,” he tried to explain. “Nothing’s normal about this. She’s only been pregnant a day, technically.”

He suddenly realized Jackie wasn’t paying attention to him. She was digging through the fridge, trying to help Rose find food. “No sense in starving the child, that’s what my Mum said when I was carrying you, Rose. Here, have some fruit; plenty of vitamins in fruit. Does he actually need vitamins?”

The Doctor shrugged as Rose took a bite of the banana, then she immediately spit it out. “Ugh. That’s worse than the perfume.”

“You liked bananas a few months ago,” Jackie protested. 

“Now I don’t. They’re awful.”

“Hey!” the Doctor said, a bit offended. “Are you trying to tell me a child of mine doesn’t like bananas? That’s insane! You are sure he’s mine?”

Rose tossed the offending banana at his ruffled hair, missing by inches. “I don’t want rabbit food. Have we got something… meaty?”

“You just ate my roast,” Jackie said wistfully, eyeing the empty tinfoil.

“Wrong meat. I want something savory. I want…” she pulled open the freezer and yanked out a box, “This! I want these, and maybe some ice-cream or something too.”

“Fish-fingers?” The Doctor winced. “You want fish-fingers and custard? That’s disgusting.”

*  
It had been a long day. Jackie was finally in bed, after spending hours calling everyone in Britain to tell them Rose was expecting. Several of the women had come to the flat in person, prodding and poking at poor Rose’s stomach, each one thinking she was at different point in the pregnancy, depending on what time of day they made it there.

Rose was happy to be rid of everyone and to just be home for a change. She’d popped one of her favorite Disney movie into the DVD player, a well-worn WALLE disc, and now she was laying comfortably across the Doctor’s lap on the couch, a warm blanket pulled protectively around her shoulders. Her eyes were getting heavy.

“This movie is incredibly inaccurate, you know,” he said accusingly, pointing out yet another flaw. “The last robot on Earth looked nothing like that. They always conveniently leave out what he did to all the other friendly little robots. You realize your sweet little robot is a serial killer, don’t you? Just look at those soulless, replaceable eyes.”

“Mmhmm,” she hummed, listening to his words without trying to decipher them.

“Oh, it’s late,” he realized suddenly, feeling for the remote. “Sorry, I’ll switch this off and we can go to bed.”

“Leave it,” she whispered, “You slept last night, there’s no way you’re tired. I can sleep with noise on, just stay with me a while, yeah? This is comfortable.”

“Of course,” he promised, settling back to watch the absurdly unrealistic depiction of outer space in silence.

It took less than five minutes for Rose to fall deeply asleep. He turned the volume to almost nothing, just to be sure it didn’t wake her. She needed more sleep now than ever before, and it wouldn’t be on his account that she neglected it.

The Doctor set one hand softly on her abdomen, wondering how much sleep a human baby needed. Gallifreyan babies (which was really a better term, considering they weren’t Time Lords yet) usually slept about half of the day during their first few years. He was surprised to feel the roundness of the thing—she was at least seven months along at the moment. That was further than he’d seen her up to this point, and he started to calculate the equation for the increasing intervals when Rose suddenly sat up.

He was surprised; he had not felt her breathing change, and she had been so unwilling to move before. Now she was sitting up on his lap, eyes open but unblinking, turning her head slowly from side to side. They came to rest on him and he grinned, a twinge of pain stabbing at his hearts. Her eyes were wide, a strange tinting of yellow around her pupils as she stared at him passively. This was Rose Tyler’s body, but she was not currently in the driver’s seat.

“Well, hello there,” he said, a small sad smile on his lips. “I’m the Doctor. Welcome to the universe, young one.”

The being ignored his words, bringing Rose’s hand up to exam the fingers, flexing each one of them carefully.

“Those are fingers,” the Doctor said gently. “Your Mum’s finger’s actually, nothing to worry about. A Time Lord mind, you see, is much more powerful than that of a human under normal circumstances. You’re already inside Rose’s body, when she fell asleep your mind overpowered hers and saw an opening in the motor controls section, so you just moved right in and took her over for a little while. She’s fine, just sleeping while you play around with her body.”

Those yellow rimmed eyes looked at him again, and one of her hands came forward to press on the side of his face.

“Yes, I’m real. You’re real too, in fact. You’ll be a fast learner, I can tell. This happened on Gallifrey, you know, to some of the smarter children. It was something to brag about, being able to overtake your Mother’s mind. I suppose the bragging rights are diminished a little considering she’s a human.”

It took his hand and pressed it against Rose’s face for a minute, the examined his fingers. The being placed its hand over her ribcage, a small smile tugging at its lips as it felt her heart beat.

“See? You know that sound, don’t you?” The Doctor asked, trying to be as delicate as possible. “Less than a day in the universe and you’ve already mastered heartbeats. Good on you, young one.”

It moved its hand to his chest, feeling a double beat, and looked at him quizzically. “Two hearts,” he explained. “You’ll probably only have one. That’s fine, human are fine, I love humans. They really are fascinating. Now then, your mother needs her sleep, but if you’re running her body about the rest will cancel itself out, okay? I need you to let yourself sleep so your Mum can, alright? Can you understand me?”

It stared at him blankly.

“Well that’s not your fault. Half-human and conceived a day ago, I suppose you’re doing pretty well considering the circumstances.” He gently took hold of Rose’s shoulders and laid her body back down on his lap. “Do you need something? Is that why you came out to visit?”

The being practiced making a fist a few times, then grabbed softly at the afghan covering the both of them.

“Oh, you’re cold? That’s it, isn’t it? Gallifrey had temperatures running quite a bit higher than this I suppose, a chilly night here must feel like winter to you right now. Well, no worries,” he folded the blanket up over the bump on her stomach, “I’ll keep you warm all night. Just lay down, close your eyes…that’s it now, just like that. You need your rest too, for all we know tomorrow could be your big day.”

Rose’s eyes fluttered and finally closed. The Doctor rubbed her abdomen, hoping it would put the being living inside to sleep. He sighed, shutting his eyes tightly and allowing himself to think about what he’d been ignoring. This wasn’t his first child.

He could remember almost everything about them, but every hundred years or so he would forget some little detail. His daughter, for instance, he could no longer remember her favorite color, and that knowledge haunted him on the rare occasions when he did try to sleep. He could remember the birth of his first child, a boy with light blonde hair and blue eyes. He’d had seven years with that child before it had asked the question. Every Gallifreyan child asked the same question, one day, the question that ended their childhood and sent them off to the academy to become Time Lords.

“Daddy, what’s a Dalek?”

They couldn’t ignore the threat to the universe forever, the children had to be told about. There was no way to explain pure hatred to a well-raised child. He could hear his son’s voice in his ear, it was one of the voices he heard whenever he was about to do something terrible. Why did you let the Daleks have the Satellite Five? Why did you leave Jack Harkness? Daddy, why have you stolen the moment? What do you mean ‘no more’?”

How could he do this now? How dare he have another child when he couldn’t protect his others? He held Rose a little tighter. This wasn’t her fault, she was barely more than a child herself. This baby hadn’t asked to exist, the weight of this was on his shoulders alone.

“I’ll try,” he whispered quietly, wondering if the child could hear or understand him. “I will do everything I can for you. If it comes down to my life or yours, I’ll always save you, or your Mum. I can try,” he promised.

The light from the TV danced over the warm family. They were little, and unusual, but they were happy.


	5. Chapter 5

Amelia McNab ran down the street as fast as she could, but her high heels were not meant for running. The asphalt clicked beneath her feet, echoing dully on the tall brick buildings. She’d been running for so long, her home was only a quarter mile away, now.

Think, think, she begged herself. You are not an animal, you have reason. Think of a way out of this.

She was not fast enough. Amelia McNab ran into one side of an alley—an attempt to make a shortcut—and she was never seen again.

__________________  
When Jackie got up in the morning she saw the Doctor still holding Rose, trying to interest himself in some muted Discovery Channel documentary. He waved silently, pointing at the still-sleeping Rose to warn her to be quiet.

Jackie rolled her eyes, turning the TV volume up and pulling pans down to make breakfast. “Sleep through a war, that one. There’s no way a bit of noise will bother her.”

He frowned. “She heard me in her room the other night. It woke her up.”

“What were you doing in her room,” Jackie asked accusatorially.

“Oh, um, I was just… that’s not the point.”

“If you think you woke Rose up, it’s because she wanted you to think so. She must have been awake when you walked in there.”

He thought it through for a minute, then raised his eyebrow at the sleeping girl. “Well, you devious little sneak.”

“I suspect she’ll be hungry when she wakes up. I was thinking eggs, maybe some bacon. ‘Course I couldn’t eat eggs at all with her. Made me sick all nine months. How is she?”

“She’s been asleep for a good nine hours or so. It’s good for her but—”

Rose cried out from his lap, cutting him off. “Ah!”

“Rose?” he asked alarmed.

She jumped from the couch, hands clasped over her stomach. “Oh, it—it burns.” She let out a scream as they rushed over to her, trying to lower her back to the couch.

“No, no! I don’t need to rest, I need…I don’t even know,” she cried, wringing her hands.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, it just hurts. I hurt everywhere!”

“Is she in labor?” Jackie asked him.

“Maybe,” he started, but Rose shook her head. 

“That’s not it. I just… it’s like I’m hungry but… oh, move!” she pushed past them running for the door.

“Doctor, what’s happening?” Jackie asked as he ran out the door after Rose, ignoring her.

Rose’s stomach was extended, not to the degree it had been the night before, but enough to slow her down for the Doctor to catch up to her. “You shouldn’t be running. Just tell me what you need!”

“The TARDIS! Get me to the TARDIS.”

He scooped her up in one swoop, running around the corner to where they had parked the little wooden box. She burst inside, pulling up one of the removable floor boards and digging through the wires.

“You’re going to electrocute yourself!” he cried, trying to move her from the wires, but she just pushed him away.

“I know what I’m doing,” she insisted.

Jackie made it to the TARDIS, gasping for breath and holding a stitch in her side. “You two are in shape, did you know that? I haven’t seen anyone run that fast since I caught Howard the grocer with that fish woman in the Peat District. Just how much running is involved with your travelling?”

“Quite a bit, actually,” he said distractedly, wincing every time Rose took hold of a wire. He set a hand comfortingly on the console, hoping his box wouldn’t get scared and try to electrocute the three of them.

On the contrary, the TARDIS seemed perfectly calm as Rose dug through her mechanisms, finally pulling out a sleeve of tubing from the floor. She snapped the tube in her hands and a thick, oozing gold liquid dripped from it.

“Rose, be careful! That’s excess radiation from the Time Vortex. The tubing is a disposal system so we don’t get too powerful of a dose from traveling through it.”

Rose ignored him entirely and stuck the end of the tube in her mouth, taking deep drinks of the goop.

“Ew!” Jackie cringed, trying to pull the tube from her daughter’s hands. “Sweetheart, you have no idea what’s in that junk.”

Rose held up her hand, warning her mother to stay back. After a few intense gulps, she finally pulled away, sighing in relief as she laid down on the TARDIS floor. “That’s so much better. The pain is gone.”

“But what is that goop you were drinking?” Jackie asked disdainfully. “How did you know it was down there?”

“No idea,” Rose shrugged. “I was just…like hungry, or something. I knew where to get it, whatever it was.”

“Pure time energy,” the Doctor explained, carefully repairing the tubing with his sonic. “On Gallifrrey you would get everything you need from the air. I guess the baby decided to improvise, sent you to the TARDIS to collect it for him.”

“He sent me? As in, he gave the thought?”

“Sure. It was easy enough for him last night. The good news is you drank a very concentrated dose, it should sustain you through the rest of the ordeal.”

Rose was just agreeing with him when she gasped again, grabbing her stomach in pain.

“Then again, what do I know?” the Doctor grumbled at himself, picking her up to carry her back to the flat.

“No! Here! I want to stay here.”

“Well thanks, love you too,” Jackie snapped. “Is my flat really so bad you’d rather stay in a room where goop comes bubbling out of the floor. What’s the design in here anyway? It looks like I’m surrounded by brown cactuses.”

“The word is cacti, and it’s not. These are coral,” the Doctor argued.

“I’m just saying, you couldn’t go wrong with a bit of a woman’s touch in here. Especially if you expect my daughter to fly around in this thing permanently.”

“I’ll set my desktop any way I like. You probably wouldn’t even like the round things. I loved the round things.”

“If anyone’s interested,” Rose cut in, “I want to stay here because—ow! These are not hunger pains.”

They looked at in confusion, but what they saw shocked them into understanding. Rose was lying in the Doctor’s arms, eyes wide, and skin positively glowing.

No, I mean really glowing.

“What is that?” Jackie shrieked as the Doctor laid Rose on the ground. “Don’t let her go; we have to get her somewhere safe if the baby’s coming!”

“No place safer in the universe,” he promised, closing the TARDIS doors as Jackie knelt down by Rose’s head. He ran back and grabbed the older woman, pulling her away.

“Hey! I want to be with Rose! Rose, Honey, can you hear me?”

“You can’t,” the Doctor explained. “That’s not any glow, that’s regeneration energy. We have to stay back, it could burn you, or mess with my genetics. Too much exposure and it could kick-start me into my next face.”

“What about her? If it’ll burn me, why not her?”

“It would have started already, she would be in pain.”

“She said it hurt! We have to stop this!”

“I don’t think that’s her pain she’s feeling,” he said ominously.

Rose lay on the floor, gasping softly as she watched her shimmering fingers. She looked over and saw the Doctor standing there with Jackie. She tried to speak but her throat was dry. Her voice came out raspy and sad. “If I don’t…If I die…”

“Don’t you dare talk like that,” he said immediately, but the tears staining his face poked holes in the shelter his confidence provided. “You can do this Rose Tyler, you’re fantastic. Just hold on a bit longer.”

Rose let out a final gasp, and suddenly a bright yellow light filled the room, shining from her face and hands. It was magnificent and the heat was almost unbearable. The light danced in the air, but instead of dispersing, it swung around the room and came to hit the floor next to Rose, filling the space with a formless blob. As the light congealed it took on shapes, a leg here, an arm there, and worked its way in a circular fashion until there was a fully-formed adult body lying next to her, concealed by the yellow energy.

“Rose!” The Doctor yelled, using one hand to shield himself from the light.

Very suddenly, the glow was gone from Rose’s body, along with the bump that had been on her stomach. What was left of the energy swirled through the room, always coming to rest in the figure on the floor. Rose took shaky breaths and sat up slowly, watching the last traces of the light bounce along into the figure. Finally, only the body next to her glowed, and with a sudden pop the light disappeared, leaving a boy in its wake.

Rose stared at him in shock for half a minute, taking in every feature of this being she’d created. He was tall, five-foot seven at the least, and he looked to be about sixteen physically. He had wild brown hair that hung down intrusively onto his angular face. Rose laid a hand on the boy’s face, brushing some of his hair away gingerly.

His eyes shot open, and he went immediately from sleeping to panicked. The boy shot up into a sitting position, grabbing at his arms, his face, his legs, making unintelligible sounds with his mouth, as though he couldn’t find words that he wished he had.

“It’s okay,” Rose said immediately, pulling his head to her shoulder, trying to calm him down. “It’s okay, Sweetheart, I’m here. You don’t have to be afraid, never ever. Everything is alright.”

The boy made a sharp grunt and pulled away from her embrace, pressing the heels of his palms against the side of his head. “Ah!” he cried. “Ah—ah!” he fell backward, screaming, his hands guarding his temples.

The Doctor ran over, leaning over the boy and wrestling his hands away from his face to replace them with his own.

“What’s happening?” Rose shrieked. “He’s in pain! What’s happening? What are you doing?”

“He’s too human, more human than I thought. But just as smart as a Time Lord. Those things don’t go together. You can’t have a Time Lord mind inside a human brain, it’ll burn up and die in under a minute.”

“He’s dying?” she sobbed, grabbing tightly at her son’s hand.

“I’ve just got to—okay hold still,” the Doctor said, pinning back the terrified boy’s arms. He laid his own palms against the boy’s temples, closing his eyes and concentrating very hard on something. After ten seconds the boy stopped screaming, his arms and legs going limp beneath his parents.

“No!” Rose screamed, a scream that chilled everyone on the TARDIS to their bones. “No, he can’t be—”

“He’s not dead,” the Doctor said, quickly, pulling Rose into a tight hug. “He’s okay, he’s only asleep, I thought it would be easier to get him back to your Mother’s without his arms flying everywhere.”

“But—but you said his mind would kill him.”

“It would, that’s why I’ve moved it.”

“His whole mind? You moved it?”

“No, not the whole thing. Just some of the Time Lord part of it. Imagine…a wall, like, a bid dam inside his head. I took the stuff that was too much for him to handle and shoved it behind a barrier where he can’t reach it.”

“So he’s safe?” she asked, laying a hand alongside the sleeping boy’s face. “Our son is safe?”

“Not exactly. The wall… it’s a quick fix. We’ll have to find something more permanent.”  
“But he’s alive,” Rose sobbed, ignoring him as she stroked the boy’s cheek “Our son is alive, and I’m alive.”

The Doctor grinned. “Oh, yes. So alive.”

“He’s beautiful,” Jackie whispered from the corner. Rose smiled at her mother, surmised to hear such gentle words. Jackie quickly composed herself. “But I guess you couldn’t have made him any younger? People are going to think he’s mine! You’re way too young to have one that age. Bit big for a newborn.”

Rose rolled her eyes as the Doctor took off his overcoat and wrapped it around the boy, lifting him gingerly in his arms. 

“I think he’s perfect,” Rose said, slipping on hand around the Doctor’s arm as they walked back to the flat she’d called home before her life had changed, all those months ago.

A/N: Some may notice I’m using the idea of Sammy’s wall in Supernatural so yeah…go Supernatural! Also a big fan of that show, and it seemed the best way to let Jack live…for now. (Giggles maliciously)


	6. Chapter 6

They dressed the boy in a warm robe (pulling out a couple of wayward oranges) and the Doctor gently set him down in Rose’s bed. She was beside him in a second, hauling a heavy comforter over him. The Doctor pulled his stethoscope from his deep pocket.

“What’s his name?” Jackie asked from the doorway.

Rose shrugged noncommittally. “Not sure yet. I don’t care, as long as he’s alive.”

“He is,” the Doctor promised, listening closely to both sides of the boy’s chest. “One heart, but it’s strong. Blood pressure is a bit high, but I suppose if you had just been born on a metal floor and had the boss of all headaches welcome you to the world, you’d be a bit jittery too.”

“He looks like you,” Rose said, and the Doctor smiled at her.

“Yeah, a little. He’s got my last form’s ears though, poor devil.”

“How are you, though?” Jackie asked, pressing a hand against Rose’s face. “Any pain? Can I get you something to eat?”

“I’m fine,” Rose insisted, swatting her hands away, barely paying attention to her mother. “Perfectly normal. What do you think he’ll eat when he wakes up? You eat human food, right Doctor? Yes; yeah I’ve seen you eat a hundred times, what am I thinking—plus being half-human means Earth food should taste good, I suspect.”

“Hey,” the Doctor said, catching her shoulders, “calm down. You’ve just done something amazing. Let us help now, okay? Why don’t you go rest a bit and—?”

“I don’t need rest,” she said, softly shrugging him off, “and I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying in here until he wakes up.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to wait long,” Jackie muttered, tapping her on the shoulder.

The boy’s head moved to the side a bit, his eyebrows knitting together worriedly. He opened his eyes slowly, catching sight of the strange creatures around them. He gasped and backed away quickly drawing his knees up to his chest as he cowered against the headboard. He was going to cover his face with his hands, but Rose held tight to one of them. He blinked at her, using his free hand to rub his eyes.

“Shh,” she said quickly, setting her other hand on his shoulder, “it’s okay. You’re safe, you’re okay.”

“Hello, there,” the Doctor grinned, leaning in just a little so he didn’t scare him, “we met last night. Do you remember me?”

He looked at the strange man blankly, trying to hide with his free hand.

“What’s wrong with him?” Jackie asked. “Can’t he hear us?”

“He hears us fine,” the Doctor said, “but I doubt he understands anything. He’s a newborn, have you ever seen a happy newborn? Nah, one minute you’re happy and warm and protected and then the next you’re tossed out into the world. No explanation, no direction, surrounded by creatures you don’t know, and in this case with way too much empty brain space. It must be terrifying.”

Rose took the boy’s face in her hands and he stared at her, looking her over suspiciously. “You’re safe,” she repeated, sweeping his hair back. “Look, it’s me, do you know me? Huh?”

He stared at her for a long minute as recognition slid across his features, then suddenly he was clinging to her, hiding his face in her neck in a tight hug. “There we go,” she said, petting his hair, “don’t be scared.”

“Mothers,” the Doctor said happily, “most powerful beings in the universe.”

*  
They sat the boy down at the kitchen table; Rose was staying close by his side as he was still eyeing the other two fearfully. Something was different now, though—he didn’t look scared as much as he looked…overwhelmed. His head whipped wildly back and forth, watching, staring down everything in the room from the table to the fridge to his own thumb.

“He’s bound to be hungry,” Jackie said rummaging through the cupboards.

“Why do you try to feed everyone who walks in the door, Mum?” Rose rolled her eyes. “There are other ways to take care of people than stuffing their faces.”

“Faces,” the boy repeated.

They all stared at him in shock. He was simply sitting in his chair, looking in fascination at the ceiling tiles.

“Did he just speak?” Jackie asked.

“I think so,” Rose said.

“Think so,” he repeated.

“Well, that’s interesting,” the Doctor said, watching the boy carefully. “Not even Time Lords started repetition this early. Of course, they weren’t born fully formed either.”

“But, why’s he doing it?” Rose asked.

“Why’s he doing it?” the boy said flatly.

“He’s only repeating you,” Jackie said to her daughter.

“Well, yeah, he knows her. Most intelligent beings can recognize their mother. This is learning, he copies voices until he can use language himself. Maybe, if he gets to trust me, he might mimic me, too,” the Doctor leaned in patting the boy on the arm. 

The boy looked at him, blinking curiously, then leaned in as he had, copying his facial expression.

Jackie set a plate in front of him, a bunch of different sandwich meats piled on it. “Go on then, take a bite; see what you like.”

He looked at Rose, tilting his head to one side. She picked a bit of salami off the tray, popping it into her own mouth. He copied her movements, pushing a piece of the meat into his mouth. His eyes went wide and he grinned, repeating the action with the other items, suddenly acting as though he had been starving.

“See? Food is the answer sometimes,” Jackie teased as she cut up a few fruits and slid them on the tray.

“Sometimes,” the boy repeated, taking the fruit from her.

Jackie grinned, grabbing Rose’s shoulder. “Oh! He’s doing it to me now!”

“Well, yeah,” the Doctor said, “you brought him food. Bring a parrot a cracker and he’ll be your best friend.”

She whacked him on the arm. “You’re just upset that he isn’t copying you. Don’t call my grandson a parrot.”

“Parrot,” the boy said around a mouth full of strawberries, a slight chuckle in his voice. He took a slice a banana, then spit it out, wiping at his tongue in disgust.

“What?! The Doctor said, his face falling. “You’re actually serious, aren’t you? You don’t like bananas? Bananas are good! Tell him! Rose! Jackie!”

The boy laughed again. “Jack.”

“No, it’s Jackie,” his grandmother informed him. “You don’t have to call me that though. We could go with Gran. Or Nan—oh no that makes me sound so old.” She said in horror, covering her mouth.

“Jack,” the boy insisted.

“Look at that,” the Doctor said, suddenly a bit more serious. “You didn’t repeat that. You heard it early and used it. That…you shouldn’t be able to do that. Not yet, not by any stretch of the imagination.”

Rose frowned at him. “Is something wrong? He’s just smart, that’s all. He’s a smart boy, he learns quickly.”

“He learns quickly. Jack,” the boy said.

“Is that your name?” Rose asked, wiping a bit of fruit juice off his face. “Are you Jack? You want to be named after your grandma?”

“Jack,” he said again happily.

“That smile,” Rose said, washing the juice from his hands. “My god, you smile just like your father. Okay then, I don’t see why you shouldn’t have a say in your name. Jack it is. If that works with you, Doctor,” she said suddenly, turning back to him.

“Jack is lovely,” he said, nodding. “Great name— Jack be nimble, Jack in the box, Jack and the beanstalk—”

“Jack Harkness,” Rose laughed.

“No. No, not like Jack Harkness, no. Nothing like him,” the Doctor shivered.

The loud scraping of the chair against the floor grabbed all their attention as Jack stood from the table, stepping carefully on long shaky legs into the living room. They followed him, watching him carefully as he explored the room, picking everything up and examining it. His grin grew after each new discovery. They sat and watched, getting just as much enjoyment as he did from watching him find new things. He spent a good five minutes staring intently at a vase Jackie had placed on the coffee table, studying the three roses placed inside of it.

Finally he stretched his fingers out and inspected them. “Fingers,” he stated, looking over at the Doctor.

“Well, look at that!” the Doctor said. “He does remember last night.”

Jack lifted one of the roses out of the vase and brought it to his face, then gently walked over to Rose and put it in her hand. “…look at that,” he stuttered out a bit, trying to reuse the Doctor’s words.

“Wow, that’s a very nice rose, Jack,” she said, pretending to examine it as closely as he had.

He looked between her and the flower, obviously trying to convey something he had no words for. The Doctor frowned, reaching over and taking the flower. “No, he can’t be.”

“What’s he doing?”

“He recognized the word. He knows your name is Rose, and he’s made the connection between your name and the flower. That’s amazing. I’ve never seen a being learn that fast.”

“He learns quickly,” Jack said, repeating a snippet he’d heard earlier. “Jack learns quickly.” He looked at Rose with a broad smile. “Rose?”

“It’s Mum to you,” she informed him, booping him on the nose as Jackie switched on the TV.

He laughed, poking her nose back, all traces of his earlier fear gone from his excited face. He heard more voices and turned to the TV, his eyes widening as he saw more faces running past the screen. He looked at the Doctor with wide eyes.

“What, did you think we were the only faces in the universe? This isn’t even my only face. You’ve got plenty of things to see, Jack.”

Rose watched the boy carefully as he examined the television. “Doctor? You’ve had other faces…Will he…?”

“Regenerate? No. One heart, one life. Mind you, he might live quite a while. One hundred, maybe two hundred years if he’s careful. Then again… we’ll have to keep an eye on his quantum state. If it’s too unpredictable then… well then we’ll have to find a way to fix it.”

The voices on the television changed from happy to maudlin as Jack played with the buttons, switching channels. A grim faced woman in a pinstripe suit sat behind a news desk, facing her waiting audience through the screen.

—and there has been no development on the disappearance of Chairwoman McNab, but the remains of Professor Edwards from the University of Colorado, America, have been found. Authorities have placed the time of abduction at roughly 4pm, London Standard Time, meaning the Professor was still expected in classes when he suddenly disappeared from his office. The Professor’s death is being considered connected to that of Miles Frobisher because the two had been close friends, despite their difference in location, and disappeared in the same way—from a locked office in the middle of two busy office buildings. The body of Miles Frobisher was found some weeks ago, but authorities will not discuss the details of how the bodies were found, or what they looked like. We do have it, on good eyewitness report accounts, that both the bodies may have been compressed in some way. This, on top of the death of Miss Toshiko—

Jackie switched the TV off. “Dreadful business. Too bad about Chairwoman McNab though, I voted for her you know—”

“How long ago was this?” The Doctor asked. He turned the TV back on, but the report was over. “Why didn’t you tell us about this?”

“Tell you about murders? Why would I? They weren’t crushed by a spaceship, if that’s what you’re thinking. Just ordinary humans killing each other. It’s sad, but there you go.”

“Professor Edwards, I knew him, I met him last year. He was working on a paper on his theory of Relative Time Travel, and I attended one of his lectures. He was way, way off mind you, but it was still fascinating to listen to a human get close to figuring it out. It’s like watching a fish play chopsticks; it’s not exactly Beethoven, but still pretty impressive by the standards of a fish. Miles Frobisher… I know that name, too. How do I know that name?” the Doctor sighed, rubbing his temples. “Ah! I can’t think! It’s this head! I need a bigger head.”

“Doctor,” Rose started, “if you know these people, do you think they’re disappearance might be connected to you? With them disappearing like that…do you think someone is sending a message?”

“It could be. We should definitely check it out. I recorded a copy of his lecture, I should have it in the library on the TARDIS.”

“Um, hello,” Jackie said, crossing her arms. “I think you two are missing something. You have a child. You can’t just go off, running about the way you used to, leaving him all alone.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrow. “Well, no. Obviously he’s coming in the TARDIS with us.”

Jackie widened her eyes and threw her arms out, making a blockade between the Doctor and his son. “Not bloody likely! I’ve heard about some of the things you two get into. He’s a baby! It’s bad enough you run my daughter all over the universe; I barely get to see her. You can’t take him too.”

“Mum, there’s no safer place than the TARDIS,” Rose said reassuringly.

“Maybe, but you never stay in the bloody TARDIS, do you? You told me about the last places you’ve been. You fought the devil, those French clockwork men, that school, just a few miles down the road was all full of monsters, then Mickey and that whole Cyborg thing—”

“Cybermen. Those were Cybermen,” the Doctor interjected quickly.

“Whatever! You aren’t dragging my grandson all over Time and Space in that worn out phone box!”

“Oi! Bigger on the inside,” he protested.

“Mum, I know how to take care of Jack,” Rose said.

“How can you? He’s not even a day old. No one knows exactly what he is—”

“Exactly, neither of you know exactly what he is, but I know him best. There’s a reason I had to drink that goop in the TARDIS floor—he’s part Time Lord. The TARDIS is his home, I’m sorry but it’s true. It’s where his parents live, where they fell in love, and if I have anything to say about it, it’s where he’ll spend most of his time. We will come back, Mum. All three of us, no matter how bad the situation gets, we’ll always find a way back to you.”

Jackie was about to protest, but she was surprised by Jack, hugging her from behind. She turned to him, the baby who was at her eye level. “Home,” he repeated from his mother.

Jackie rubbed a bit of water from her eyes, hugging the boy back. “You better find your way back to me. Every time. I expect to see you again soon, young man.”

The Doctor smiled to see his son hugging his grandmother. “You think telly is fun, Jack? Wait until you see the real world.”


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Bit of a short, fluffy chapter, there will be one more like this one next as well just because I want a chance to play with Jack before I push him into the plot more. Enjoy!   
Jack’s one heart beat fast as he ran, looking at the world rush by him in a blur. He wasn’t sure why they needed to run, these two strange creatures holding his hand and him, but he wasn’t worried. The Mum and the man were smiling, it didn’t look like they were in danger. They just liked this part; ‘the running’ she’d said, ‘love the running’. As his long legs glided over the ground he was inclined to agree with her—this was the freest he had felt since he’d suddenly found himself in existence. 

The air rushing past his face was new, the scent of the trees was something he had never dreamed of. There were other people on the street, looking suspiciously at the little family who was running for no apparent reason. Jack laughed, something he’d just learned to do and found quite enjoyable. The man was nice, but the woman was magnificent. The Mum was wonderful and soft and she spoke sweetly. He held tightly to her hand the most, wondering where they were taking him. 

“Slow down, slow down,” Rose chuckled, pulling Jack to a slow stop as they reached the little blue box.

“Slow down,” he copied, panting slightly through his excitement.

“That was fun,” she giggled. “A bit unnecessary maybe, but…”

“Oh, nothing wrong with a bit of exercise. Look, he loved it,” the Doctor said as he unlocked the door. “Jack,” he said, preparing to open the door with a grand gesture, “welcome home.”

The Doctor flung open the doors of the TARDIS, and suddenly Jack was very confused. It had been a very stressful day, with many new things he had to learn, but one of the first things he had gotten down was size. His person fit inside this little flesh body. His food fit inside his belly. The people fit inside the room. He was fairly certain that none of these things could be reversed. The room would not fit inside the people, his belly would not fit in his food, and this huge room should not fit inside a box. Yet, there it was.

He walked into the metal room with big eyes, recognizing the metal on the ground. He pulled his mother to the console and he laid down as he had when he’d been born.

“Yeah, you recognize this place,” Rose said, pulling him up. “We’ll find you a room. There’s thousands in here, you’ll have plenty of space. Doctor, listen, about this lecture…”

Jack heard another voice, echoing behind hers. Hello…Child of time…come here…come to me. He smiled, looking around for the source of the voice. There was the man, messing with the control switches, and there was the Mum beside him, talking about something Jack didn’t understand. The smile faded. He had noticed, quite quickly, that when there was a voice, there was a mouth to go with it. Even the strange people on the television had had mouths. The others’ mouths were busy though, and he knew his own voice, so who was talking?

My thief and the yellow girl…they cannot hear…none other can hear…but you were born with me, born to hear…born the perfect Time Lord…but oh, the pain I see for you in the future, Dear Child. My thief…he will be so sad when you are taken from him…Poor Doctor…Poor yellow girl…

Doctor! That was it, that was the man’s name standing with the Mum. Jack smiled. His previous assumption, he figured, must have been wrong. Apparently one did not need a mouth to speak. This voice, however, was soothing and nice and calm, so he would trust it. So far, in life, he’d met no one who wanted to hurt him, and this voice seemed friendly enough.

“Yellow girl,” he repeated dutifully, hoping the voice could hear him and knew he was trying to learn from it.

“Well, Jack,” the Doctor yelled, clapping his hands together, “come on! It’s about time we get you out of that robe. I’ve got quite a closet, you can pick anything you like.”

Jack looked worriedly at Rose, then back towards the door. She nodded, kissing his forehead. “That man, he’s the Doctor, Jack. He’s your father, and he’s the most wonderful man I’ve ever met. You can trust him, really.”

Jack shyly walked with the Doctor, watching him closely. There was nothing wrong with him, exactly, at least nothing he could see, but something about this Doctor person troubled him. He seemed nice, though, and the Mum liked him. She’d said he was his father, and though he wasn’t entirely sure what that meant he had to admit that there were certain similarities between the two of them.

The Doctor stopped in front of a door, a wild look on his face. “This is my favorite part of regenerating,” he whispered conspiratorially. “I’m never quite sure who I am until I pick out an outfit. So,” he flung open the door, “show us who you are, Jack Tyler.”

*  
Rose was making her bed when she felt two long arms snake around her waist, holding her loosely. She smiled laying one hand over the Doctor’s fingers. “Where is he?”

“Getting dressed.”

She spun around. “How? He doesn’t know what a shirt is, much less how to button a coat,” she went to push past him.

“He’s fine,” he assured her. “He’s a fast learner, Rose. He shouldn’t be speaking yet, much less formulating his own phrases, like he has been. He’s seen us in clothes, he knows how they work.”

She sighed, sheepishly sweeping her hair back. “You’re right. I suppose this is all a bit new.”

“I suppose it would be.”

She stopped a minute, tracing the outline of his face with her fingertips. “I’m sorry. You told me. Jack… he isn’t your first child. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he nodded gently. “I’ve had my children. This is different.”

Her face fell. “What do you mean?” she let go of him and backed away a bit. There was a deep fear in the pit of her stomach, and for a moment she looked at him as though he were a Dalek, a heartless thing looking at her in confusion. “Doctor, Jack is every bit as much as your son as any child you may have had in the past. What, you think that since you got to have a family, anyone born after that is just extra? You aren’t as worried about him as me— you wanted to get rid of him when we found out about him! Jack is my son, and if you don’t want to take his life seriously then just drop us off—”

“Whoa!” he said desperately. “Whoa, hang on! What are you talking about? Who said anything about me not caring about Jack?”

“You said he was di-different,” she stuttered, letting him take her hands.

“Of course he’s different. Time Lords weren’t born fully formed, Rose. We started as babies, just like humans. Jack is something I’ve never seen before, all the rules are changed. Don’t get me wrong—when I see him I think about my other children, but only because I failed to protect them. I have something I never dreamed of having before. I have another chance. You gave me another chance Rose. If Jack continues like this, I have the possibility of leaving something behind me in the universe besides a hodgepodge of legends calling me Destroyer, or the Storm. Jack isn’t normal, Rose, but that doesn’t mean he’s not important. I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important, much less my own son.”

Rose sighed, holding a hand over her mouth. “For a minute I thought…”

“Well, don’t. It’s a bit more difficult for us to connect, yeah, we haven’t had years to do it in. You he trusted right away because you’re his mother. Mothers are special, they’re the thing that brings you into the universe, and you know them before anything else—especially Jack, since he was conscious through part of the pregnancy. It might take me a while, but we’ll get there. We’re a family, Rose. If we were perfect it’d be boring.”

“No boring on the TARDIS.”

“Exactly,” he grinned.

They were distracted by a rapid tapping of feet. “Jack?” Rose called. “Jack, we’re in here, Sweetheart.”

She heard the running feet change direction, and then suddenly Jack was at the door, the wild expression of outright glee on his face, making her chuckle. Then she saw his clothes and the smile disappeared.

“Oh, that’s brilliant!” the Doctor exclaimed, looking at his son’s wardrobe appreciatively.

“No,” Rose said quickly, “absolutely not.”

Jack looked at her crookedly, the small red hat sliding down onto the floor. He was in a colorful patterned shirt, covered by a tweed jacket with leather on the elbows. His pants were bright white, with a question mark on each knee. He was wearing a long military coat around his shoulders, and the long colorful scarf nudged the little red hat that rolled dolefully around his feet. He held the clothes to himself excitedly, grinning at Rose. “Look,” he stuttered.

“Yes, I see it, and no, you are not wearing that.”

“Oh, come on,” the Doctor whined, eyeing, straightening Jack’s crooked shirt. “He looks great. I haven’t seen this scarf in ages. And what is this,” he picked the hat from the ground. “Is this a fez? That is classic; that is just…a little bit…cool? No, that’s definitely the wrong word. Still, you pull it off, not many people can do that.”

“Is that a bowtie?” Rose frowned.

“Of course it’s a bowtie, why not?” he asked.

“Well, for one, it’s around his wrist.”

The Doctor slipped it off Jack’s wrist and started to hang it around his neck. “Well, your mother was wearing a bracelet, he hasn’t seen anyone wear a bowtie properly yet. Scarves are easy, bows are hard. He guessed.”

“He can’t wear that,” she insisted. Jack eyes fell a bit, rounding out at the corners and dragging his eyebrows with them until he resembled a sad puppy. “Oh, no,” she sighed, covering her face, “he can do the thing.”

The Doctor threw an arm around his shoulders, copying perfectly the expression on Jack’s face. “Please, Mum, he just wants to wear something creative. Will you stifle his creativity?”

“On the TARDIS only,” she grumbled. “Did we have a lecture to go over or not?”


End file.
